Gold
by Pebblemist is Hamiltrash
Summary: Prequel one-shot to Unexpected Ties- In which Maya reflects on the time before she and Riley opened The Box, and wonders why things can't stay good all the time. Based on the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost


_Nature's first green is gold,_

 _Her hardest hue to hold_

 _Her early leaf's a flower,_

 _But only so an hour_

 _Then leafs subsides to leaf,_

 _So Eden sank to grief_

 _So dawn goes down to day,_

 _Nothing gold can stay_

* * *

 _~~~Nothing Gold Can Stay, by Robert Frost~~~_

* * *

The sky was still dark when I woke up- it was much, much earlier than I usually woke up, especially on a Saturday. Saturdays were supposed to be my free days, my escape from school and stress, and that usually meant sleeping as long as I could possibly sleep until Riley got worried that I wasn't coming over. But today was different somehow. Today was... special, and even _I_ didn't quite understand why.

I knew it when I blinked open my eyes that morning not feeling tired at all. All I knew was that I needed to draw, draw something, draw _anything._ It wasn't the first time I'd woken up like that, with a sudden urge to let out something artistic, but it was the first time it had happened this early.

And it was the first time I had any sort of idea how to satisfy myself, and so I grabbed my art supplies, slipped on a coat, and went up to the roof of my apartment.

It was a special place, _my_ place, that nobody knew about. Not even Riley knew I came up here. And I tell Riley pretty much everything. It was like Riley's window. Except it was _mine_ , and I could count on it being there even in my darkest times, and that was saying something, since I couldn't really count on a lot. Not my mom, who worked two waitress jobs just to be able to support the two of us; she was usually gone before I woke up and back after I'd gone to sleep. Not on my dad; he left her and started a new family. But I had Riley and the Matthews, Lucas... Farkle... Shawn, even though he wasn't around all that much anymore... I know I can count on him when I _really_ need him, though.

I sat cross-legged, staring at the blank white paper in front of me. That was often the hardest part of doing anything artistic- starting. I shivered and breathed a soft sigh, my breathe coming out in a puff of smoky silver mist, outlined against the dark indigo sky. Then the dawn came, and from the roof, you could see _everything._ Buildings upon buildings stretched for what seemed like miles, and zigzagging in between were the ribbons of highways, dots of moving color that were cars. It was pretty cool, even during the day. But that was nothing compared to this.

A thin line of gold stretched across the horizon. There was mist, glittering with slivery golden light, and the clouds changed from dark gray to lighter gray to a pure, beautiful pink. There was a moment of complete silence, the only sound that of my heartbeat. And then the sun peaked out above the horizon, casting a pale, orangey-gold over the city. The sky was a brilliant array of colors, ranging from pink to gold to blue.

I let out a silent gasp- it was beautiful. Why couldn't things be like that all the time? In my opinion, the world was a very dreary place.

I picked up a pencil, suddenly inspired. Things couldn't be like that all the time outside of my sketchbook, but if I drew it, then I'd be able to keep it forever. It _could_ stay like that, in a way. As if by some subconscious instinct I let the pencil dance across the page, first leaving just a few lines, then turning into something more. With the sight still fresh in my mind, I knew I had this right.

By the time I had sketched, painted over, and dried the picture, the sun was all the way up, and I let out a sigh, pulling my thin winter coat closer to me. It was warming up, but only a little. Weather in New York this time of the year could never be counted on. I was just surprised it wasn't snowing.

I headed back inside, setting my newly painted picture on my bed and going into my mother's room, where I knew that there were some empty picture frames. Pride swelled in my chest- I really liked that painting.

The room was empty, surprise surprise, but on my way out I noticed something up in the closet. It had always caught my eye, but whenever Mom saw me looking at it she placed in even higher on the shelves. Sometimes I really hate being so small. But now it was on a lower shelf, one I was sure I could reach if I stood on my tiptoes and stretched as far as I could.

It was The Box. I didn't know what was in it, but it always called to me, like _Maya, Maya, open me, open me..._ I just never could, at least til now.

I set the frame down on Mom's bed and walked towards the closet, reaching out for it, when something made me stop.

There had to be _some reason_ she didn't want me to know what was in the box, and if I saw it now, then I'd be going against her. If it were anyone else (except possibly Mrs. Matthews) I wouldn't have had a problem with it- I'm a rebel at heart. But my mother, that was a different story. Maybe it was the way I was feeling that day, I don't know. But I left it alone, not to be opened by me until about a month later (though that's another story and I will not get into that now.)

With a sigh, I sat on the bed, opening my locket. The one I'd gotten for my fourteenth birthday, with the picture Shawn took of me and my mom in it. Me hand her, smiling, together, like a family again. We hadn't quite been like that lately, through no fault of our own. Keeping the lights on was a little more important. But still, it hurt, looking back nearly two years ago. Things had been so different then, so... so... good. A mother who was there, a stand-in father... why couldn't things have stayed that way?

The same thought, nearly a month later, changed everything. If I had known what would come of it, I never would have given in to the temptation, I never would have opened that box. But I did, and nothing would ever be the same again.

Oh, why couldn't things have stayed the way they were?

* * *

 _The End_

* * *

 **So a little while ago, before summer started, I was on a bit of an _Outsiders_ kick and started writing a fic based on the famous poem _Nothing Gold Can Stay,_ by Robert Frost, which as many of you know was featured in the book. However it never got finished. But lately I had been wanting to write a prequel one-shot to my story _Unexpected Ties,_ and finishing this was a must.**

 **About _Unexpected Ties;_ Chapter 24 is indeed finished and edited, but whether or not I post it this Sunday depends on whether or not I can crank out chapter 25. I'm thinking if I don't update I can at least have 25 and half of 26 by next Sunday and _then_ post it, but we'll just see what happens, so hopefully this can hold you over until then!**

 **I also need to work on my upcoming part of The Elite's _Life Between the Pages-_ I'm in charge of the _Robin Hood_ arc but have been procrastinating. We'll be in for an interesting rest of the summer!**

 **Stay gold, guys, stay gold!**


End file.
